Here's to another 41 years.

[caligula]

Yesterday was the forty-first anniversary of THE VACUUM CLEANER COLLECTOR'S CLUB. We were the first, and originally a teaching club as there was no internet. All we had were phone calls and snail mail. And the only source of reaching others was with the Newsletter. Through this we covered the history of the vacuum cleaner, stories of inventors and various companies. We began with five original members. My thanks to John Lucia, who was my co-founder. Without him there never would have been a club. Also, my thanks to The Hoover Historical Center which was our birthplace. And lastly, to Elizabeth-Liz- Krammes for designing our logo and letterhead.

Alex Taber.

 

[caligula]

Our first logo.

Here's an abstract of the first logo, The non-electric Baby Daisy, a British machine of 1890. Also the actual Baby Daisy.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

Thank YOU, Alex, and John!

Many more years....................................

 

[odavid123]

That is amazing !

 

[paul]

Happy 41st, VCCC! Thanks, Alex, John L. & Liz!

 

[caligula]

Thank you odavid123 & Paul.

John, Gottahaveahoove knows this all too well.

The club got it's start in I think August of 1979 when I went to the Hoover Historical Center and met with Stacy Krammes. She gave me tons of written material and pictures of not only Hoover, but other vacuum cleaners. Most of these were non-electric like the Whirlwind of 1869.There are only 5 of these and I own one, see pic. below.

Cut to 1980, when she forwarded a letter to me from John Lucia who was interested in Hoover models 150, and 700. With this a friendship began, but more important, the useless information in our heads was useless no more.

In September of 1982, John and I toured Hoover again, this time a factory tour not just the Historical center. We also went to the graves of several Hoover family members and that of Murray J. Spangler, who started the ball rolling in 1907. Upon leaving Stacy gave us a list of names, people interested in vacuum cleaner history. I turned to John and asked, "Think we should form a club?" He was a bit doubtful, but said, "Contact these people and see what they think." The result was the first newsletter sent out on January 2, 1983.

This was the birth of the V.C.C.C.

 

[caligula]

The 'Vault.'

The vault was a huge area where not only Hoover prototypes, and whatnot, but also other brands of vacuum cleaners were stored. The vault was off limits. Not even the top brass of Hoover could go in. But in August of 1979, Skip Marquadt, head of engineering and design let me inside. I was blown away, and deeply honored to be the first person into that chamber of delights. This was repeated in 1980 for both John Lucia and myself, and again in 1993 when the V.C.C.C. held it's first outside meeting at our birthplace the Historical Center, home of the Hoover family, in May of that year. As John, Gottahaveahoove can attest, it was breathtaking.